Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart warns of asteroids at college ceremony

Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, shown here in a previous appearance elsewhere, spoke last week at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont and told his audience he is concerned that “there’s no accepted, global policy on what to do about asteroid impacts.”
the associated press

CLAREMONT >> Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart warned during a scholarship ceremony this past week at Harvey Mudd College that more needs to be done to keep asteroids from hitting the Earth’s surface.

“We can predict them and stop them yet nothing is being done,” Schweickart told the audience at the new Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning, where he had presented Harvey Mudd senior Joshua Edelman with a $10,000 scholarship.

Schweickart’s presentation Wednesday included graphic video and photos from the Feb. 15 Chelyabinsk meteor, which exploded into pieces and caused a shock wave above Russia.

“There’s no accepted, global policy on what to do about asteroid impacts,” Schweickart said.

The NASA astronaut spent 241 hours in space in March 1969 as lunar module pilot of Apollo 9, the first manned flight of the lunar module and the third manned mission in the Apollo program, officials said. He briefly remarked on his experiences during the question-and-answer portion of the presentation.

Before the speech, Schweickart said he wanted to give a presentation on what he sees as the “importance” of a great education in science, engineering and math and “not the usual kind of thing you hear about.”

“It is through science that we understand the world around us, and by understanding the world around us, we not only contribute to ourselves, our family, to our communities, etc. you also contribute to the basic development and evolution of humanity,” Schweickart said. “Our understanding of the universe and our ability to modify things, not just our behavior, that’s an important one, to be compatible with the universe around us. But we’re also at a point where we can begin very slightly in our own way to shift the universe.”

Afterward, Edelman said he enjoyed the talk.

“I thought it was really interesting. It’s not every day you hear from an Apollo astronaut. Kind of scary,” said Edelman, 21.

Edelman, an engineering major from Nashville, Tenn. had his photo taken with an oversized $10,000 check from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF), and he’s also a recipient of the 2012-13 Phillips Engineering Award.

Donald Remer, HMC’s Oliver C. Field Professor of Engineering Economics and Management, said Edelman had a 3.9 grade point average and was an aspiring rocket scientist.

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“As a sophomore, he designed and built a custom rocket with two different nose cones,” Remer said. “Did I mention there happened to be a failure in the middle of the process? But that’s how we learn.”

Edelman has also completed internships with Boeing and the NASA spaceflight center in Huntsville, Ala. He hopes to pursue graduate studies and a career in rocket science.

“$10,000 is a lot of money,” Edelman said, adding the money would go to his Harvey Mudd College tuition. He wants to go into the fields of “aerospace, flight testing, or to be an astronaut would be a wonderful thing. Wherever it ends up.”

Edelman thanked his parents and said his grandfather was an engineer and he loved playing with Legos as a child.

“Genes, I guess,” Edelman said with a laugh.

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